After visiting Florida three times since 2008 and our New York City trip from february/march this year we wanted to do visit the West Coast of the United States of America. We started looking for rates when we were still in New York but the rates were very high. That made us decide to wait with booking. And then KLM dropped the prices suddenly. At first the flight times where not so good with flight times from 20 hours or more. But when we could extend our vacation with one day we could have both a low price and very nice flight times.

The flight towards the United States goes from Nürnberg to Los Angeles with a stopover in Amsterdam. The total travel time takes 14 hours and 40 minutes. We will fly there with a Boeing 747-400.

Flying back to Europe takes us even shorter with 13 hours and 30 minutes. But we do not fly with KLM but with Air France with a stopover in Paris. The long-haul flight will be in a Airbus 380-800. The biggest passenger airplane in the world. This will be Danielle’s first time in this huge plane and we will be sitting upstairs.

Of course this trip is not about the flights but nice flights for low prices make the vacant ion better. at this moment we are planning the things we want to do. The next thing we will book would probably be the rental car. And we still have enough tim since the trip starts 6 months from now.

We woke up with a very sad feeling, the trip we started planning a year ago was about the end. We got a late checkout and this made it possible that we could sleep a little bit longer today. Which was not bad since we would miss a whole night due the time difference.

After packing most of our stuff in the suitcases (Danielle) and me writing the blog from yesterday we decided to go out for something to eat. We ended up eating a sub at a local Subway for and at a local Starbucks for a frappuccino. After breakfast/lunch we went back to the hotel room to pack the last items in the suitcases and the carry-on bags. I got the task to guess the weight of the suitcases and I guessed it would be just about right.

After packing the car we left the hotel in the direction of J.F. Kennedy Airport. Without looking at the navigation system how we would be directed we left in the direction of New York City. Soon found out that the drive was a very exciting one over the George Washington Bridge. Danielle told me that it was great to look around, I paid more attention to the traffic since it was busy on the road.

Soon we arrived at National Car Rental to return our Full-size SUV and everything was fine. Too bad we only got to drive this car for a couple days. I can imagine driving this car in one of our next USA trips for a longer period.

For the rental car facility we took the AirTrain to Terminal 1 where the Lufthansa check-inn is located. Danielle was not so sure about the suitcases but as I guessed earlier today we had one suitcase from 21,8 kilogram and the other one was 22,6 kilogram. It’s allowed to have 23 kilogram heavy suitcases. We went directly to the security line and waited near a power outlet to board our flight to Munich. The flight took of 10 minutes earlier then expected and due to the strong back wind the flight time was only 6:56 hours instead of the 8:15 on our flight plans. We landed in Munich at 6:40.

Due to the early arrival we could enjoy a breakfast at the Munich Airport and we were also sure that our suitcases would be on the same flight to Nürnberg. At 8:50 our flight took of and at 9:08 we both woke up from the rough landing on the runway. Since we woke up so abrupt we directly grabbed our coats and luggage jumped in the bus to the baggage claim and at the moment we walked in the suitcases arrived.

And as always at airports the officers from customs are really active if a flight arrives. But this time we were lucky again. They picked the man walking behind us for a check. We were happy and we rushed through the doors to get a ticket for the U-Bahn and the train. At 10:45 we arrived at home.

Danielle unpacked and I started checking my 200+ business mails. We were both directly back into reality. The next evenings I will spend uploading additional pictures to our Flickr account and Facebook.

Thanks for reading and commenting on our blog. It was a pleasure to read the comments every morning.